91. How Sandee Sgarlata Increased her Podcast Downloads by 400%

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At the end of last year, I. Was hovering around anywhere from a thousand. To 1500 downloads a month. Just this week, which is just two days, I've got almost 5000 downloads in just two days. So it's really making a difference.

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I'm now in the top 0.5% globally. Wait, what? Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let's back up a little.

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What did she say? So it was April was like 9300. That's when the judge. It started in April. As of this morning, this month alone, I've got 47,363 downloads.

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Okay, so I did not mishear that. Then. Here is someone who, in the span of four months when we recorded this episode, managed to more than four X her podcast download numbers and been the top zero 5% of podcasts globally. Anyone else want these kind of results, too? I bet.

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Well, you're in luck, because Sandee Sgarlata is going to take us through exactly what she did to make this happen. My name is Deirdre Tshien, CEO and co founder of Capsho, the fastest way to repurpose and market your expert content. And this is the Grow My Podcast Show.

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I'm Sandee Sgarlata, and I am the host of the Happiness Solve podcast, and I'm a peak performance coach as well. And here's the thing. Because over the last couple of years, I've been in this reinvention and relaunching my coaching practice because I had to put everything aside. For ten years, I had, I was already a published author. I was speaking all over the place.

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I was doing all these great things. Life happens while we're busy making other plans. My life took a total detour. And for ten years, I was in. Survival mode taking care of my child because I became a single mother with.

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A 13 year old little boy. And that was it. And it wasn't until I dropped him off in college in August of 2019. That I became more available energetically and emotionally, because that's at the base of all of this. This is where it is.

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Okay? So I wasn't available. All I could do was work my corporate job, take care of my child, get the bills paid as a single mother. And I did get remarried and all. Of that, but that's neither here nor there.

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Thankfully, I found the love of my life. And second time around is amazing, if you choose wisely. So the thing is that from an energetic standpoint, you have to be available. And so what I started doing, because I stepped away for so long, I started just investing in myself and investing in myself and investing in myself. And I love to talk to people.

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I love to learn. I told you, I'm a self help junkie. By interviewing people that are an expert in something that I want to learn. More about, I get to talk to them and I don't have to pay. Them for them to give me their knowledge.

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And so that was the real, it. Was very selfish, right? I had my own selfish reasons that I want to learn all this stuff. And a byproduct is let's spread this. Out because we need more happiness in the world.

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So that was my motivation. So yeah, there was a selfish part. Of it, but then it's also a labor of love because podcasts are free. To listen to and I'm able to give this information here. Learn from the best.

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Learn from the best. These people have amazing wisdom. So that was kind of the thing. But what I'm getting at was in all of my investing in myself, one. Of the things that really stood out for me, and I believe it was Jen Gottlieb.

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I was in Jen Gottlieb's program, her media mastermind, and she has a book coming out. I mean, she's just like, talk about somebody skyrocketing. But you know what? She's not an overnight success. She was on VH 115 years ago.

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This is somebody who's been working hard for probably two decades. But what she said was, everything you're doing now, you're going to see the results in three months. And there's a three month cycle where it takes three months of doing things consistently in order to get those results. So what was happening was during January, February, March, not only was I shifting. Energetically, because I was like, I'm going.

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To focus on my podcast because I. Really haven't been paying attention to it. It was just on autopilot. So from an energetic standpoint, I started really at the cap show. Like, you can't just think about it.

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And we're going to get more downloads. You've got to use all the practical tools that are at your disposal. And so I think it's just a. Combination of a perfect storm of my. Mindset, the tools that I'm using, the.

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Consistency and all of that. As you can see, three months, after. Three months, boom, it started to grow. And there's a compounding effect in play. So yeah, it took a while to.

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Get to 9000 downloads, but look what. Happened since, because it's compounded and it. Just takes on a life of its own. Wow, isn't that incredible? And in fact, if you go to the show notes.

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You'll even see some screen grabs we took of Sandee's podcast download analytics that she was open to sharing with you, too, so that you can see exactly what she means when she says the podcast marketing took on a life of its own. And when we delved into exactly how Sandee was able to get these results, it came down to three things. Three things that we will go through right after this short break. This podcasting thing we do is not an easy undertaking, is it? I mean, the podcasting part can be simple and fun, but then everything else, the marketing, the growing, the getting clients from it part, not so much.

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Which is why I love talking to people who have managed to have some of it figured out. And not just figured out, but working. Sandee Sgarlata is one such person who just in the last four months has four Xed the number of downloads she's getting on her podcast. She now boasts over 48,000 downloads a month, which has landed her in the top zero 5% of podcasts globally. And I had to know how she did it.

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What were her three secrets to getting the results that she has? Let's start with her first one, mindset. It all comes down to getting your. Mind prepared for what you're about to do. Okay?

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So really at the basic is like. Have a daily regimen. Like, how do I want to say it? A non negotiable meaning every day. These are the things that you do.

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And it's not negotiable. Just like the first thing I do. When I wake up, I wash my hands and I brush my teeth. It's non negotiable. I don't leave the bedroom until I, you know what I mean?

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So we have our little schedule. Well, part of that is also focusing on everything that I have to be grateful for. What type of day do I want to create today? So while I'm brushing my teeth or things like that, or having my morning coffee, I don't look at my phone, I don't turn the TV on. You just start thinking about, okay, what.

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Do I want today to look like? And so for me, while I was. I went to the gym this morning. I worked out, came back, took a shower. It's like, oh, I'm just going to put my hair up red.

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And I was like, oh my gosh, wait a second, did I have a podcast to review? So then I totally shifted gears. It was like, oh, wow, it was like 1115. I'm like, okay, I have 45 minutes. I'm like, okay.

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So I had to shift gears. So then what I started doing was I start asking the universe, God, whoever you pray to, Buddha, Allah, Jesus, it. Doesn't matter, whatever that energy is, that higher power. I just tend to say, universe. I'm like, help me to see everything today with love.

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In every situation that's put in front. Of me, I will handle with love. And help me be like, what was I saying? I don't even know. I was like, I'm doing this interview.

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I want to be a vessel to spread really great things and information and. Help me to just show up in that way. So it's all about how we're showing up, but it's our mindset which creates that frequency. And that's what I'm talking about, that energetic frequency of how you're showing up. And so it is like turning the light switch on.

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It's interesting because I work with a lot of athletes, elite athletes. And so yesterday, I was talking with one of two of my clients. They're an ice dancing team, and they. Had three competitions this summer. They had first place, second place, and fifth place.

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And I was like, okay, what happened when you got fifth place? Well, their warm up didn't go as. They'D wanted it to go, and they got off the ice, and then they. Were the first ones to get out there. They didn't get to practice this one.

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Nerve, and blah, blah. I'm like, okay, that was a lesson. Now, let's take that. And it was in Lake Placid. It was a pretty big competition because it was in Lake Placid this summer.

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And I was like, let's take that. And use that as an example for life. Right? Life throws us curveballs all the time. So what you want to do instead is the next time that happens, you have two choices to make.

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You can sit and worry about all. Of those unknowns, or you can say. This is what happened. Now, let me focus on getting out of this mindset. What do I have to be grateful for?

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And I started out well. I was like, what, instead, could you have chosen to think, be grateful about? And they were like, well, that my. Parents are supporting me, and my parents. Got me here, and that I am.

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Talented enough to even be here in this situation today. So I got them to start thinking about different ways to look at that. Situation, because it's kind of like, I'm. Reading a book right now by Gabby Berdstein, and I've never picked up any of her books. And for some, I.

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Everything I do is by inspired action. For some reason, I was, like, called to. I need to read her book. And it's, you know, none of the information is brand new, but the way it's presented is how it makes a difference. And like, oh, my God, I love that.

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And what she talks about is everything that we do in life is an assignment. We have an assignment we're given. So. Right. You say, oh, it's a lesson that I learned.

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Well, yeah, it's kind of an assignment. This is an assignment, and you have. A choice as to how you're going. To respond to that and learn from it. So in the future, you have that.

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Resilience and that grit to get you through even more times. It's so good, so insightful. And how would you sort of almost apply that to podcasting and how you've maybe specifically applied it to your podcast? So there's many times when I have interviews to do and I may not be totally up for it. Well, one of the things that is very important to me Is my integrity.

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Yes. Have I had to reschedule interviews? Absolutely. There's some times where you absolutely have to. It's just, I'm not going to reschedule an interview because I'm having an off day.

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Okay. That's not fair to my audience and it's not fair to my guest. Okay. Because I can make that shift. So, yeah, there's days where I'm not feeling that great emotionally, and maybe I don't want to do that interview, but what I do instead is you have to kind of give yourself a pep talk, and that's how you apply it to podcasting, is that before you hit record, and if it takes five minutes before the interview, 20 minutes, doesn't matter.

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Before you go live, you want to make sure you are in that good mindset, because what's going to happen is if I'm doing an interview that I'm not really into, my guest is going to know it, and it's going to come across because people, they may not be aware of it, but they can feel it, that you're not there. So from the time you do that interview till the time it's released, there's got to be that energy around it that is just positive and it's uplifting, and you're there and you're showing up 100% everything we do in life, you can either come at it half asked, because if I didn't shift that mindset, it would be kind of like, yeah, okay, I'm just kind of here today. And I don't want to show up that way. Yeah. And so basically what you're kind of almost saying is we always think that the podcast is the end result, but there's actually so much that goes into it before that.

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Before that is obviously the editing bit, and before that is the actual recording, but before that is actually, as you. Said, how you actually turn up energetically. And just create amazing content. And I think that gets missed a lot. How powerful was that?

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If you needed a little motivation or boost to keep going, then I hope you got it. We're all here to serve. And so what you're doing now with your podcast, you're serving, just don't do it half ass. Which actually leads us into her second secret to seeing success in her podcast. Consistency.

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And not in the way we usually think. Consistency we can talk about really briefly, because I don't think that it is what it is. It's just being consistent. Make a decision. Mine is Wednesdays and Fridays.

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And just be consistent. Just always be consistent with that. About one thing that I hadn't shared, and this is the first time I'm really announcing it on October 4. I'm doing over the next 30 days. Yeah, I've got less than 30 days now.

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Well, yeah, a little more than 30 days. I'm completely rebranding my podcast and my brand. I mean, not in a big way. It's just there's a few things that are lining up, so that's kind of like. But I'm incorporating it with my brand is happiness solved.

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And so I'm going to be reissuing my book. Happiness Solved is going to come out with a second edition with a new cover and just kind of making everything streamlined and consistent across the board because it's not consistent. My book cover, you can see it behind me, looks totally different than the logo of my podcast. So I'm just rebranding everything. So it's all the same because I'm not being consistent in that message.

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And now with everything that's going on, it's like, okay, now's the time. Let's just rebrand with this one logo, one look with my books, because I have more books coming out under the happiness solved brand name. So it's kind of like that whole. Thing, again, needs to be consistent. Now.

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What I appreciate about what Sandee just said is that it's not just being consistent in creating her podcast episodes, but it's actually consistency in everything, her brand, her content, which really comes down to how do you make the experience for your audience not confusing one from the time they find out about you to the time they realize they want to give you their money and be part of your community. How do you make that whole process really intuitive and easy for them so they don't have to try to figure out at different stages whether it's still you or someone else. They don't have to try to figure out what you do and what you sell. They don't even have to try to figure out the name of your business. Everything, end to end, is so consistent that it's easy for them to take action with you.

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Because, as we know, a confused mind says, no, this was an aha moment for me, too, because let's just say I definitely have the tendency to overcomplicate things and want to create content that is maybe not the most helpful for the audience I'm trying to build for my business. So even for me, this was a reminder to stay on course and be consistent. And so that leads us straight into Sandee's secret number three, her tools. I released two episodes a week, Wednesdays and Fridays. What was happening, though, is we were so behind on social media, posting everything.

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Now I use podpage, and that's linked to my website and LinkedIn and Facebook, so those are automatically getting posted on the day of release. But Instagram is where I'm mostly active, and that's where I have most of my followers. And we just didn't have a game plan, and that's totally on me. Right. I know we talked about this a couple of weeks ago.

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It was totally on me. I was not organizing my team, and I was like, look, let's just get on the same page. So the VA sends out the video. Snippet to every single guest, either the day before or the day of the release, so that they know that it's released. Bam.

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So she does that. My social media guy, he posts it the day that it's released on Instagram. We got caught up because I was still trying to catch up with all my episodes. I said, let's catch up on those. It doesn't matter.

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Don't put the episode number, just get it out there. So once we started doing that, and now we have that consistency, and with. The biggest thing with Capsho that I. Really love was putting in the transcript. So that was the other thing that I needed my VA to do was that put it into cap show, get the transcript, put that into pod page.

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So that's going out on the Internet. The titles are so much better, more creative. The show notes, like, everything about every episode just sounds better. It's just next level is all I can say. It's like that next level thing.

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And so it took a few months, but we started this, say, in January. Maybe it was January, end of January. I don't recall the exact time, but my numbers started going up and going up and going up. I can see the statistics, and everything is going up. And as of this morning, this month alone, I've got 47,363 downloads.

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Sandee's story is seriously incredible, and something I have become more and more curious about is the mindset behind investing, because, as we know, capture in and of itself isn't the cheapest software out there, even though it provides so much value. Come on, now. And yet, Sandee took the leap to invest in it before even getting these results. So I was curious about what her approach is to thinking through investments she makes like this. I am so glad you asked that.

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Question, because it is at the basis of what I believe every single podcaster ought to focus on. Okay. And that is always pay attention and focus on your why. Why are you doing your podcast? What is your why?

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And that goes for anything in life. What is your why? So, yeah, while.

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I make a little. Bit of money off my podcast, but. I'm almost breaking even with my monthly expenses, which is fine. I don't care about that. Do I want to make money off of it?

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Absolutely. It's a $24 billion industry, so, yeah, there's a little bit of that. It's a long day. Let me just keep plugging away. Let me just keep plugging away because there's no such thing as an overnight success.

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You just got to keep going, and you keep doing it. And I'm growing. I'm making it better. I'm doing all these things. I always focus on the why.

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And what is that why? When I wrote my book and started the podcast, I knew that the message that I'm putting out in the world. And everybody that I'm talking to, it's bigger than me. It's not about me. This is about humanity as a whole, and that things have to shift on the planet, and that's my why.

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And I want to play a small. Part in hopefully helping to make that. Shift one listener at a time. And so that is my why. Yeah.

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Is it growing? Is it finally starting to? On paper, it's paying off. Let's give it six more months, and I will almost guarantee that there will. Be a profit from my podcast.

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I already have corporate sponsors reaching out to me, and we're in negotiations, so it's just a matter of time. But I will never forget my why. That why will always be the number one, the number one reason why I do my podcast. Wow. I have absolutely loved speaking with and learning from Sandee, and I hope you did, too.

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Let me know in the chat section of the show notes what one gold nugget you got from this discussion and if you wanted to learn more from Sandee. So you want to listen to the podcast Happiness solved. You can go to happinesssolved.com or anywhere else that you listen to your podcast. If you're considering launching a podcast, you. Can text pod launch to 26786, that's.

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Pod launch to 26786. And I will be in touch with you. We can schedule a call and we. Can talk about it. And I can either point you in.

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The right direction, because I know it's a big industry. There's a lot of people out there. If I'm not the right one to help you launch, I can tell you, give you other resources. I just of the mindset of abundance. It's all abundance.

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And we need more podcasters out there spreading the word. It's a village. It's not just one person. We need other people out there and. Just knowledge and wisdom.

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Whatever you can bring to the table, bring it on. My name is Deirdre Tshien. Stay awesome.